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Ron Chimelis: Women prove perfect, passionate sports fans

YANKEES_ELLSBURY_BASEBALL_13397173.JPG

Jacoby Ellsbury adjusts his cap while taking questions from the media during a news conference at Yankee Stadium on Dec. 13, in New York. The former Red Sox outfielder agreed to a $153 million seven-year contract with the Yankees. In this column, baseball writer Ron Chimelis discusses how he believes women are the purest of sports fans. Women, he notes, "can brazenly say they adore Ellsbury because, well, they adore him. "
(AP Photo/John Minchillo)

That is at least true in baseball, where I do most of my roving these days. That was apparent with the reaction to Jacoby Ellsbury’s exit from the Boston Red Sox for New York, where the Yankees gave him a seven-year, $153 million contract.

Male fans rushed to their sabermetrics tables. They calculated the loss of Ellsbury’s WAR statistic (it’s “Wins Above Replacement” – if you don’t know, don’t ask) and studied the farm system for replacements.

They knew all the potential free agents and their likely cost. Women did none of this.

All they did was swoon.

“How could he do this to us?” one woman asked me.

“He is being paid $153 million. Duh,” I answered.

The sequence was repeated in other conversations. Men thought the Red Sox were smart to avoid a long-term commitment to a player who has endured injuries and is very good, but is just one man.

Women wrestled with the loss of their favorite eye candy. I did not find this shallow; I found it refreshing.

Not all women look at ballplayers this way, but their response differed markedly from men I encountered.

Women commit an emotional stake in these guys. Men do not. Well, not in the same way. At least, not the men that I know. Maybe I should stop before I get into trouble.

Women do not discard the fact that these are human beings, not just numerical lines on a stat printout.

As a rule, they do not play fantasy baseball. Their fantasies are much more traditional.

Personally, I find this type of fan support much more pure and intriguing than treating baseball the way you would treat any other profit-loss statement. That is how most men seem to view it.

“Why did he need that much money?” a woman lamented to me.

“Spoken like someone who has never been offered that much money,” I responded.

“Doesn’t he care about his fans in Boston?” a middle-aged woman wailed to me.

After I had stopped laughing, I assured her he cared passionately enough to run a full-page thank-you ad in the Boston Globe, before high-tailing it to the Bronx, where he proclaimed himself proud to be a Yankee.

It reminds me of the Meg Ryan character, who was run out of business by the Tom Hanks character in the movie, “You’ve Got Mail.”

Told it was nothing personal, Ryan’s character retorted, “What’s so wrong with being personal, anyway? Whatever else anything is, it ought to begin with being personal.”

That’s it, exactly.

Men seem relieved the Red Sox will stay under the luxury tax. Women can’t believe he jilted them.

I am generalizing, I know. I am sure there are women playing in fantasy baseball leagues.

I am sure some men looked at Ellsbury’s exit as a detachment of loyalty between a player and his team’s fans. My point is that almost all of us once looked at it in that, not that long ago.

They were our players, and we were their fans. Only women hang on to that pure, if antiquated, belief today.

The rest of us have been numbed by ungodly salaries, free agency and the drumbeat of coverage of baseball as a business, not a sport where a linkage existed between players and their public.

Women have not discarded that connection, and I am serious when I say I commend them for that. To some degree, I even envy them, for their enjoyment of all this seems values-based and real.

When I talk to women, I don’t feel the need to quote how many home runs Mike Napoli hit to right-center as to how many he pulled to left, or what a vesting options means in a contract.

I am usually asked whether this guy or that is a good guy, and whether the team is really giving its very best effort. It’s a human conversation, not a listing of stats, and those are the discussions I find most interesting.

There is a hypocrisy to all this. If I were to say I favored a women’s sports team or athlete because of the hottie element involved, I would risk being chastised or fired.

Not that these thoughts don’t cross our minds. Women, however, can brazenly say they adore Ellsbury because, well, they adore him.

He’s gone now, but I hope the personal loyalty he attracted is channeled elsewhere. Women really do seem to believe it’s better to have loved and lost than never too have loved at all.

At difficult emotional moments like these, that belief serves them well. At least they allow themselves emotional moments, and for that, they have my admiration.

Keep the faith, ladies. You are the best and most loyal fans. Someone else on this team will be worthy of your devotion, once you can see through those beards. ÂÂ